Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, softened

• 1/2 cup sugar

• 1 tsp cinnamon

• 1/8 tsp ground cloves

• 1 tsp ground ginger

• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg

• 1 egg

• 1 tsp vanilla

• 1/2 cup molasses

• 3 cups flour

Directions
1 Preheat oven to 375 and line baking sheet with parchment or silicone baking sheet.

2 Beat butter until creamy. Add sugar and spices and continue to mix into a creamy texture. Add egg, vanilla and molasses. Mix until blended. Add as much flour as you can mix with the mixer. Add remaining flour and mix with spoon (or knead with hands).

3 Refrigerate for an hour or until dough is workable.

4 Roll about 1/4 of dough on cookie sheet at a time and cut into shape of your choice, keeping the remaining dough in fridge while baking.
Bake about 6 mins annd transfer to wire rack. Once on rack, drop maple glaze* in centre of each cookie. Spread with spatula if it doesn't run. (It should be thin enough to run to the edges at least.)

5 For maple glaze, take 1 cup of maple syrup (the real stuff, please) and add icing sugar 1/2 cup at a time stirring constantly until desired consistency is reached. (Consistency is personal preference really - if you want more of an icing that can be spread, you'll end up with about 2.5-3 cups of icing sugar. For more of a glaze it will likely be less than 1.5 cups.  Both results are yummy!). Be sure to glaze or ice when cookies are warm. So do it as each batch is done.

Will make anywhere from 3-5 dozen depending on size of cookie cutter used. With the flower one pictured, I can get about 4 dozen.